6-SESSION BIBLE STUDY AWAKE THE CALL TO A RENEWED LIFE
RONNIE FLOYD Awake: The Call to a Renewed Life Bible Studies for Life: Small Group Member Book © 2015 LifeWay Press®
ISBN: 9781430034964
Item: 005680985
Dewey Decimal Classification Number: 269
Subject Heading: SPIRITUAL LIFE \ RELIGIOUS Social Media AWAKENING \ REVIVALS
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BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE 1 Don’t sleep through your spiritual life. Wake up!
Nothing refreshes like a good night’s sleep. And who doesn’t enjoy the occasional afternoon nap?
In at least one way, though, sleep is not good for us. In fact, it can be dangerous. I’m talking about being spiritually asleep. Life has a way of lulling us to sleep spiritually. If we allow ourselves to settle into a spiritual snooze, after a while we simply wither spiritually.
It’s time to wake up!
Our greatest need as believers—your greatest need as a follower of Christ—is to experience spiritual renewal from God. That’s the whole point of this study. I must warn you, though: this is not a study for those who want to maintain the status quo. When the Holy Spirit begins to bring renewal in our lives, things will change.
In the following pages, we will look at several places in the Bible where God called people to return to Him. Those passages are a call for us, as well—a call to experience revival and awakening both personally and in our churches.
When people have turned back to God throughout history, He has done extraordinary things and sparked great movements. Wouldn’t you like to see God do that again? Join me on the journey of asking God to bring about the next great movement of renewal and turning the nations back to Him.
Ronnie Floyd
Ronnie Floyd has served as the Senior Pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas for over 28 years. In addition to serving as the general editor for Bible Studies for Life, Dr. Floyd is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Read Ronnie’s blog at RonnieFloyd.com. Follow him on Twitter @RonnieFloyd.
2 contents
4 Session 1: Return to God
14 Session 2: Return to Your First Love
24 Session 3: Return to Prayer
34 Session 4: Return to God’s Word
44 Session 5: Return to Unity
54 Session 6: Return to the Task
64 Leader Guide
BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE 3 SESSION 1
RETURN TO GOD
4 SESSION 1 What’s a great way to catch your attention?
#Awake QUESTION #1
BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE 5 THE POINT
God’s call to return to Him demands a response.
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
“How did I end up here?” It’s a common question. We start out with good intentions. We want to be great parents, do well in school, or take care of our health. But we falter somewhere along the way. It may be subtle at first, but after a while we look back and realize we‘re not the people we wanted to be. At that point we often wonder, What does it take to get back on course?
The same cycle can happen in our relationship with God. Laziness, a lack of priorities, and even outright sin has a way of lulling us to sleep in our daily walk with Jesus.
So here’s the big question: if you get off track, what will it take to get your attention and bring you back to God?
In the Book of Jonah, we see a man who got off course in His relationship with God. Jonah’s move away from God’s instruction wasn’t subtle; he flatly refused to listen to God. But God got Jonah’s attention in a most unexpected way. As we’ll see in this study, God often acts to get our attention and draw us back to Him.
6 SESSION 1 WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-5,10 (HCSB)
1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: Nineveh (1:2)—Located on 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, the east bank of the Tigris because their wickedness has confronted Me.” River across from the modern day city of Mosul, Iraq. This 3 However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the ORD’L S city served as the capital of presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to the Assyrian Empire during Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to its height. Tarshish, from the LORD’S presence. Tarshish (1:3)—While the 3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: exact location of ancient Tarshish is uncertain, the most 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message probable location is Spain. It that I tell you.” was in the opposite direction 3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD’S from where God wanted Jonah command. Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, a three- to go. day walk. Sackcloth (3:5)—Sackcloth 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and is a scratchy, black-wool cloth proclaimed, “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!” usually made of goat hair. 5 The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and People in ancient cultures wore dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least. garments made of sackcloth as an expression of deep, 3:10 Then God saw their actions—that they had turned from their personal distress. evil ways—so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.
BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE 7 THE POINT God’s call to return to Him demands a response.
Jonah 1:1-3
Jonah should have said “yes” to God. He should have obeyed. But he didn’t.
God called Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and call the people there to turn away from their sin. Nineveh had “more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left” (4:11). It was a big city. It was also a pagan place, full of clueless people. God wanted to use Jonah to get their attention and do something about their spiritual condition.
How did Jonah respond? He ran in the opposite direction. It’s almost comical that Jonah thought he could actually run from God’s presence—almost. Jonah failed to realize he could never escape God’s attention. God sees all and knows all.
When God brought a massive storm against Jonah’s boat, he finally began to see the precariousness of his rebellion. Jonah knew he was under God’s judgment because of his disobedience, and he was risking the lives of everyone on the boat with him (see 1:4-16). Jonah thought Tarshish would be far enough to escape God’s call on his life. He found a ship to take him there, but his journey ended in disaster.
The same principles are at work in our lives. There are times when God gives us a clear call to return to Him, but we respond by taking the first ship going in the opposite direction. We race toward a place, person, or desire we think will bring fulfillment, yet we only find destruction. Running from God always leads to pain.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there.
Why is it sometimes tempting to flee from God?
QUESTION #2
8 SESSION 1 Jonah 3:1-5
Tossed overboard to spare the ship and its crew, Jonah was miraculously swallowed by a “huge fish” (1:17). He spent three days When have you and nights inside that creature. It’s not surprising that Jonah was benefited from a moved to pray and worship God during that unprecedented interlude, second chance? and he vowed to obey God’s command (see 2:1-9). When the timing was right, God caused the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land.
Try to picture the scene: Jonah lay on the sand—exhausted, filthy, QUESTION #3 and smelling incredibly nasty. And that was the moment God called out to him a second time.
God told Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!” Talk about a message that doesn’t lend itself to making friends. Can you imagine walking the streets of Chicago or Dallas and yelling, “Your city is about to crumble!”? You might get arrested. You surely wouldn’t make any friends. Yet Jonah did what was difficult. It wasn’t an easy task, but he was obedient to God and faithful to His message. No doubt it’s harder to follow God than to stay in step with this world.
Then something remarkable happened: the people of Nineveh actually responded! They repented of their sins and believed God. What do God’s To display their repentance, they called for a national fast and put actions toward Jonah on sackcloth. Even the king of Nineveh repented. He changed from and the Ninevites his royal robe into sackcloth to show his own repentance before God teach us about (see 3:6). The king charged everyone in Nineveh to call out earnestly His character? before God so that He might change His mind and not overthrow the city (see 3:7-9). God used Jonah’s message and obedience to convince the people that He was a righteous God, rightfully and QUESTION #4 fully capable of destroying them because of their evil ways.
Because they believed this about God, the people of Nineveh had the opportunity to discover another part of His character: grace.
BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE 9 THE POINT God’s call to return to Him demands a response.
Jonah 3:10
The story that weaves through the Book of Jonah is the story of what happens when people respond to what God is calling them to do. This is exactly the message we need to hear in order to experience a spiritual awakening.
1. When we fail to obey God, strong consequences can result from that sin. Jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish. It could’ve been worse. He might have drowned when the sailors threw him over the side of that ship. God could have killed him right there in that moment. Instead, God was gracious. Sometimes God brings pain into our lives so that we’ll wake up before we bring complete destruction on ourselves.
2. Blessing is found in obedience. Even though Jonah didn’t know what was going to happen in Nineveh, he was obedient—and God was faithful. The people responded. The king led the people to repentance before God, and the city was saved.
I don’t know who originated this statement, but I love its truth: “Someone is waiting for you on the other side of your obedience.” A huge city full of dying people was waiting on the other side of Jonah’s obedience. If God is burdening your heart to do something, you can be sure He is preparing someone or something to happen on the other side of your obedience.
Do you want to see a spiritual awakening in your family? It starts with your own repentance.
Do you desire for God to start a great revival in your church? Let Him revive your own life.
Do you want God to change your community? Start by letting Him change you.
Groups and communities won’t experience renewal and awakening until individuals experience renewal and awakening.
How can our group be a safe and supportive place for returning to God?
QUESTION #5
10 SESSION 1 PERSONAL ASSESSMENT: WAKE UP CALL
Take a moment to evaluate your spiritual life. Do you need to wake up?
How consistently do you pray and read the Bible as a daily discipline?
(not consistently) (very consistently)
How often do you experience meaningful times of worship in God’s presence?
(rarely) (regularly)
To what degree have you grown closer to Jesus in the past year?
(no closer) (much closer)
In recent months, how often have you taken active steps to love your neighbor as yourself?
(rarely) (regularly)
In recent months, how often have you initiated spiritual conversations with others?
(rarely) (regularly)
What would you like to experience on a spiritual level throughout the course of this study?
BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE 11 WAKE-UP CALL Life has a way of lulling us to sleep spiritually. If we allow ourselves to settle into a spiritual snooze, after awhile we begin to grow complacent. Our greatest need as followers of Christ is to experience spiritual renewal from God. When the Holy Spirit begins to bring renewal in our lives, things change.
Awake examines several instances in the Bible where God called people to return to Him. Those passages are also a call for us—a call to experience revival and awakening both personally and in our churches. When people have turned back to God throughout history, He has done extraordinary things and sparked great movements. Wouldn’t you like to see God do that again?
RONNIE FLOYD Dr. Ronnie Floyd has served as the Senior Pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas for over 28 years. In addition to serving as the general editor for Bible Studies for Life, Dr. Floyd is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Read Ronnie’s blog at RonnieFloyd.com. Follow him on Twitter @RonnieFloyd.
Bible Study / Today’s Church